Forecast

Wild, wild ride for the mercury

After another dip into single digits, temps will rise again

By Bryan Fitzgerald
| on January 6, 2014

Photo: SKIP DICKSTEIN

Image 1of/6

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 6

Latasha Reyes dismantles one of many of displays from the Price Chopper Capital Holiday Lights in the Park Monday afternoon, Jan. 6, 2014, at Washington Park in Albany, N.Y. Proceeds from the annual event benefited the juvenile crime prevention programs of the Albany Police Athletic League. (Skip Dickstein / Times Union) less

Latasha Reyes dismantles one of many of displays from the Price Chopper Capital Holiday Lights in the Park Monday afternoon, Jan. 6, 2014, at Washington Park in Albany, N.Y. Proceeds from the annual event ... more

A stream created from melting snow runs down an embankment from Orange Street to a parking lot on Monroe Street in downtown Albany on Monday morning. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)

A stream created from melting snow runs down an embankment from Orange Street to a parking lot on Monroe Street in downtown Albany on Monday morning. (Steve Barnes/Times Union)

Wild, wild ride for the mercury

1 / 6

Back to Gallery

For a few hours Monday, the Capital Region saw a warm, even gleaming reprieve after a roller coaster week of erratic and treacherous winter weather.

In the morning, the temperature crested quickly at 50 degrees and then hovered in the 40s and high 30s under bright sunshine and blue sky, a treat after days with snow, ice, rain, wind, clouds and a mix of them all. But the unseasonably warm air dipped quickly in the afternoon, winds picked up and the temperature tumbled below freezing.

By 4 p.m., it was to 31 degrees at Albany International Airport. The National Weather Service said the temperature would fall by about 5 degrees every three hours overnight, bottoming out at 6 degrees around 7 a.m. Tuesday, meaning Albany was in for a nearly 45-degree swing in a less than 24 hours. Frigid lows to start the New Year were followed by a three-day, 10-inch snowstorm and then by a few mornings of below-zero lows that carried into this weekend until the air finally warmed Sunday.

Highs are not expected to climb above the low teens Tuesday afternoon followed by another night in the single digits. Code Blue emergency measures were activated yet again to get people into warm beds during the frigid night.

After a week and a day of wild winter to ring in 2014, the weather will be more seasonable during the day on Wednesday and the rest of the week. Highs should hover in the 20s and 30s, with no snow in the forecast.

"The cold isn't going to stick around this time," said Brian Frugis, a weather service meteorologist.

While fog, rain and scattered flooding on roads slowed commuters on Monday, those conditions were practically tropical compared with the record lows of 30 below zero or worse coupled snow in the Midwest. That lethally cold air was ushered in by a polar vortex, a term that echoed around social media Monday. Frugis said a polar vortex occurs frequently in the winter, when arctic air from Canada spins down toward the states.

Frostbite: Tissue damage caused by the cold. Skin turns red as the blood flows in an attempt to warm the area. It can be numb, or feel itchy, tingly or painful. The skin may turn white or gray, at which point permanent damage has probably occurred.

Heart strain: Your heart pumps harder to keep you warm in the extreme cold, as if you are exercising. Be careful not to overexert in cold temperatures, including when shoveling or pushing a snow blower.

By 3 p.m. Monday, those conditions in the Midwest caused the cancellations of two dozen flights at the airport in Colonie: A dozen departures and a dozen arrivals were both called off, most of those flights coming from or going to Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland or Boston, where Logan International Airport has been under delays that could take days to mend.

Doug Myers, an Albany International Airport spokesman, said three flights going to Boston had been diverted to Albany Monday.

Tuesday's single-digit lows in the Capital Region will be the after-effects of some of that polar vortex paralyzing the Midwest moving east. The air mass, however, will be far less potent by the time it arrives in Albany, Frugis said.

"The core of that cold air is going to modify as it moves east," the meteorologist said of the polar vortex. "It's a lot scarier than it sounds."